Post by deyana on May 2, 2012 17:35:10 GMT

Oooh a difficult subject that I don't really have the knowledge and skills to debate, just an opinion....we can't just blame 'the media' can we?. Of course our country of origin has a bearing on who we are. But the way that it's used by some people (who should know better) to cause division in mixed-race-communities that would otherwise settle into comfortable co-existance is abominable.

This is an interesting thread. What Cheery said just about sums it up.

And boring headlines don't sell newspapers. It's their job to sensationalize to get the attention of the public. Some papers tend to do it more than others.

And as for the question of 'Are origins really important?' At the moment, in the times we are now living, I'd say yes they are. In the future they will not be so much. I think knowing and learning about your origins is fulfilling and makes a person more complete.

That applies especially to someone like me, who knows very little about where I 'came from'. I'm on a very interesting journey right now to discover exactly that.

Post by auntieannie on May 15, 2012 16:18:47 GMT

I find that strangely enough, even though the world "becomes smaller" with people travelling more/settling in countries that aren't where they were born and making beautifully multi-coloured babies ... there are still at least as many prejudiced morons about as before, to say that "they should go back to where they came from". I was witness to conversations of people leaning towards the extreme of the right side of the political scale, and they never put themselves and their foreign origins into the discussion. It's just "them" that should go away and leave them to live their lives.

Post by deyana on May 16, 2012 21:04:08 GMT

I totally agree, Annie.

Just a few more thoughts to add to this subject -

It's surprising what dna has bought to light.

I saw a show a while back that proved that quite a percentage of 'White' people in the UK have some dna from Africa or the Middle East. You would never have known by looking at them though. Blond and blue eyed but with about approximately 2% African for Middle Eastern dna. The people tested couldn't believe it themselves, and would never have realized or known.

According to the research, published online this week in the European Journal of Human Genetics, the unusual DNA has been present in Britain for at least 250 years.

No Such Thing As 'Pure' Race

This throws a spanner into the traditional thinking that British names originated in white Anglo-Saxon roots. It also shows that there is no such thing as a 'pure' race - challenging many racist ideologies. DNA testing proves that some white British people have black African ancestry. DNA testing and scientific study such as this reveals that Britain is composed of a mosaic of cultures, and what it means to be British is complicated. Human migration is always complex, particularly for island nations.

Post by kerouac2 on May 23, 2012 14:20:09 GMT

It all depends on where the space beings dropped us.

More seriously, it is fascinating how skin colour evolved over the millennia, but also the exceptions that still exist.

For example -- very dark people in much of Africa, southern India and Australia where it is hot and sunny and not always protected by vegetation. And of course extremely pale people the farther north you get (which probably would have happened as well if there had been more land masses in the extreme south, but about all there is is the tip of South America). Dark but not extremely dark natives in most of South America probably because the rain forest provided lots of shade.

But what about hot places with no trees, like Arabia or North Africa? Shouldn't the people be very dark there? Most of them are not. Perhaps it is because they are more nomadic and kept mixing with lighter people?

If everybody in the world had DNA tests to find out how much of the rest of the world is in us and from where, it would be exceedingly fascinating indeed.

Post by mich64 on May 23, 2012 16:26:51 GMT

Having my DNA tested for identification of my origins is very interesting to me. I would do it if I had the opportunity.

Besides it being fascinating to know your ancestry, the reason I am so interested is that I believe in the recent research where a persons diet should be based on the diet of their origins not to where they currently reside. Should you be eating a red meat diet, a vegetarian diet, a carbohydrate diet, etc.

Depending on where you originated from and changing your diet to that region has indicated improved health and is something I would like to investigate.

Post by bjd on May 23, 2012 17:10:49 GMT

Mich -- there are various possibilities of having your DNA tested to find out where your ancestry lies. Of course, it doesn't tell you where your grandparents were from, but does provide the original lineage. The National Geographic has something.

Post by mich64 on May 23, 2012 19:31:46 GMT

This is interesting bjd and something I am going to consider doing. It would interest me to know more about what I should be eating. Apparently, it is supposed to help people who have blood pressure and cholesterol issues which are the source of many health issues.

Where one Canadian person can eat a red meat based diet and be healthy, another person can suffer many adverse health effects by doing so. I do not know if I have a similar diet that even my grandparents consumed? I do think I eat a healthy diet but perhaps it is not the right type of healthy.

One thing I definitely know is that I have never tried whale blubber! ;D

Post by bjd on May 24, 2012 6:53:28 GMT

Mich, that genome project doesn't tell you anything as precise about what you should be eating. If you look at the website, you will see an example of the gene tracking they do, as your personal genes (you submit a swab from your cheek) are mapped according to migration patterns of people with the same genes.

Post by mich64 on May 24, 2012 14:47:15 GMT

Thank you bjd for the information. Yes, I do realize that this project will not assist me with my diet questions, but the others I am reading require you to know where you originated from so that they can inform you what the original diet was for that region of the world.

Post by auntieannie on May 27, 2012 12:31:32 GMT

I know that here people don't really know where I come from and my friends tell me that my origins are difficult to pinpoint for someone who meets me for the first time. I SHOULD be used to it.

However, arriving back home last night, an obviously educated man was in the lift at the station at the same time as me. he looks at me and after a minute asks: "where are you from?" It got me really really grumpy! I answered "oh... I live here". He had the good sense of taking my answer for what it was and stop being silly.

Do you ask complete strangers where they are from?

I mean, there was a fellow student I had never met before and I suspected her origins, but said "Can I be rude and ask you where you are from?" I wasn't sure how else to ask her, but there was a reason for it. I would never ask random people where they come from. It's quite fun making up stories in my head about where random people are from and what they are doing/where they are going, etc... However I wouldn't dare let it out of my head.

Post by kerouac2 on May 27, 2012 15:01:05 GMT

I am one of those people who practically never asks a direct personal question (and even less if it is a complete stranger!). I just wait for the information to be offered one day.

Then again it would be hypocritical of me not to admit that I will sometimes ask a 3rd party for additional information about someone, but only if the other person brings up the subject in the first place.

Post by rikita on May 27, 2012 17:51:08 GMT

hm... i sometimes ask people where they are from, usually if i think they are from a place i spent a lot of time at... i sometimes wonder if that is rude, but am also curious... but of course i wouldn't make it the first question i ask them, but something i let come up in a conversation after a while (usually i'd have to hear their accent first anyway to consider they might be from this or that place). though i must admit when i hear people speaking romanian or czech then i might address them right away, without previous conversation...

Post by kerouac2 on Mar 9, 2017 11:37:37 GMT

Going back to my opening post, I watched a very interesting television programme this week about the mother of one of the soldiers who was killed by Mohammed Merah. Ever since her son was murdered, this Moroccan woman has been speaking to school groups everywhere in France -- and also in Morocco and Israel -- about the importance of tolerance and the fact that we are all from the land or region where we grew up, no matter what our cultural or genetic heritage. She is Moroccan, but she considered her son to be 100% French. He was buried in Morocco because most Maghrebi Muslim families here have a tradition of burying "their own" on Muslim soil, and France does not permit cemetery plots linked to a religious group. Now she regrets this, because her son's allegiance was to France and he was proud to be a soldier.

It was remarkable to see her speaking in classrooms with kids of all origins as they wiped tears from their eyes because a number of these schools were in tough areas with turf wars probably in progress the minute the students leave the school grounds.

While I would not wish this sort of tragedy on anybody, it is a shame that there are not more people "qualified" to give talks such as this at an age where it is really important to knock some sense into incompletely formed minds. Frankly, I think it would be a good idea for some of the newly arrived migrants from troubled lands to be trained to talk to schools about the importance of embracing a new land when the old one is gone.